Report: Terrorist Rams into Police Car in Botched Attack

Suspect was previously flagged for terrorism

A suspected radical Islamist rammed a car filled with explosives into a police van in the Champs-Élysées shopping district in Paris on Monday.

The attacker died after the incident when his car exploded, but no other casualties or injuries have been reported. The 31-year old man, whose name has not yet been released, has been previously flagged for Islamic extremism by investigators, according to the French police.

“Security forces have been targeted in France once again,” said French interior minister Gerard Collomb, adding that France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor has opened an investigation into the attack.

Collomb also pointed out that the attack shows that the terror threat is “still very high in our country,” and suggested extending France’s state of emergency that’s been in place since the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015.

“It appears the explosive part didn’t work. The device was apparently ignited but didn’t go off. It could also be that the assailant was too badly injured in the collision to go through with his plan,” said ex-head of the French anti-terror unit Jacques Poinas.

The attack comes only weeks after two Islamic terrorists gunned down a policeman on the Champs-Élysées with a Kalashnikov before one being shot dead by authorities.

So far, there have been over 20 jihadist attacks in France since the Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015, including the Paris attacks and the Nice truck attack which killed nearly 230 people.

ISIS has warned of fresh attacks in France following the London Bridge and Manchester bombing terror attacks which killed 29, saying they will continue to “carry out invasion and invasion operations” unless the French people capitulate to Islam.